Well, finally – here I am… It’s been quite a busy day today, what with sorting out all the pictures, and trying to decide what goes where – and then Julian had to go racing off to Doncaster this afternoon to let the buyers into our old apartment to do some measuring up for their furniture and “things” (Settlement Day is in a week or so, and we still haven’t moved everything out!) The Agent had sent them off armed with the keyless “door swipe” disc to let themselves in with, but of course last time we were over there, we locked up properly behind us when we left – so off he went to the rescue, yet again… Apparently the new-owners-to-be had brought their whole clan with them, plus a few of “Rabbit’s friends and relations”, and everyone was running around, exclaiming in delight at the magnificent views, the bespoke built-in Office and Den bookcases and furniture, and (according to Julian, anyway) generally milling around and getting in everyone else’s way! Once he got back, we continued with working out where the pictures were going to go. At the moment, the gargantuan “Sunset Over the Torrens” will be going in the middle of the main corridor’s wallpapered “feature” wall (almost opposite the little alcove with the hall table and the bronze busts of Dad and myself) The frame around “Sunset Over the Torrens” is in extremely poor condition, as is the actual painting itself – so we’ll hang it there for the nonce, but we’re going to have to get it professionally cleaned and restored (which will probably cost a mint! But it really does need to be done!) and then it can hang in pride of place on the plain white wall opposite the Office. “Bert’s Bath” will be hung in the smaller, “bedroom” corridor, on the wall between my treadmill room and my bathroom, instead of actually inside the bathroom as it was in Doncaster. The two Michael Parks prints that lived in the Spare Room in Doncaster are going in the Office here – they were going to have been put on the wall behind the lounge-suite in the Living Room – but Julian said that he didn’t want anything with a reflective surface (like glass!) facing the television – so the wall behind the lounge-suite will now be occupied with the two silver, black, and red “Poppy” paintings, that used to live over the double doors onto the balcony in the apartment. We’ve re-located the camphor-wood chest, so that the large print – a copy of an early 17th century screen showing the parade of Portuguese Merchants arriving in Japan – that always hung above the chest in Adelaide, can continue the association here too. My absolute favourite of all the art though, is a beautifully framed print of “Circe Invidiosa“, by John William Waterhouse, will be hung on the wall opposite the double door to the Den, so that I can see her standing there every time I turn towards the door! (and I might mention that the colours in the print are much more vivid and bright than they are in any of the pictures I’ve been able to find on the ‘Net, which don’t even begin to do her justice!) The small replica of a teeny part of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Journey of the Magi” (can you believe that it’s been made to look as though someone very naughty’s chipped off a part of a fresco!) is to go on the wall between the folding door onto the deck, and what was intended to be the Library (but which we’ve now decided is far too small to be used as a Library, so it will officially become “The Spare Room”!) And really, that’s about as far as we were able to get today, what with Julian having to dash off to open up Doncaster, and Josh arriving to do my hair! 🙂 Tomorrow my favourite eldest daughter will be over, so I guess Julian will have the fun of getting everything hung up on the designated walls, while we girls lounge around watching TV and drinking coffee! 😉

Food stuffz: well, due to my weigh-in this morning, I decided to go back to my diet jellies and Ryvita crispbreads – yeah, it was that bad – I can’t decide whether or not it’s the flat bread, the hummus, or the Halloumi cheese, that make up our lunch-time wraps that’s doing it, or the low-fat yoghurt for dessert after dinner – perhaps if I had the hummus without the flat bread… or maybe if I had the flat bread, without the hummus, or the Halloumi cheese… hmm… Or perhaps if I had the wrap for lunch, but didn’t have the low-fat yoghurt for dessert at night? Nah – t’is much more easier just to retreat back into the two Ryvita crispbreads, with Philly light, and some slices of peri-peri sandwich chicken (which is what I had for lunch today) though I was a trifle disappointed in the chicken – I think they must have just wafted (Winter makes a graceful “wafting” gesture with one hand) the peri-peri over the top of it, as it didn’t taste at all (spicy) hot! Oh well… I ate two of my four apricots, and I was lucky! One of the apricots was just on the verge of being “over-ripe” – but it was still edible, so I did (eat it) And… remember that veggie garden that Julian had always promised me, and now I have one? Well, we had our first produce from our very own veggie bed today! 🙂 A beautiful, large(ish), ripe, red tomato! There was another tomato on the same vine too, which we’ve picked and will probably have with our dinner tomorrow night, but it doesn’t look nearly as nice as the one we had with our dinner tonight! Unfortunately, Julian forgot to take a photo of it before he cut it in twain – but here’s the two halves of our own, very first, produce, ready for plating! 🙂 Next time I’ll try to remember to remind him to take a photo of whatever we’ve managed to grow, before he cuts it! 😉 So tonight for dinner we had lamb backstraps (not marinated this time 😦 ) properly prepared sugar-snap peas, chips, and half of our very own, home-grown tomato each! It really was delicious! Firm, ripe, and juicy! 🙂

Weigh-in this morning. Well, I’d been hoping that I might have started going back down the scales again, but alas – it was not to be! I’d actually gone up another two points! I was not amused! From 63.4kg to 63.6kg! And that’s why I decided to put the lunch-time wraps on hold for a while, and to go back to the diet jellies – I did my two 1.5 kilometer walks today, and I spent a lot of time standing, too, while I steadied pictures, moved the camphor-wood chest across the room on my own (it’s quite a big heavy chest – if I were younger and more agile, I reckon I could actually climb into it to hide, if I had to!) and decided (correctly, of course!) where the centre of the wall was, for hanging up a small mirror. I’ll be very interested in what the scales say tomorrow morning – and in the meantime, I still have another two days worth of those obnoxious little fluid loving and retaining pills! Surely there’s some other medication that Dr. Y. can prescribe for me that doesn’t try to turn me into a camel, and store as much fluid as I possibly can! 😦

Anyway, whatever happens, tomorrow will be a good day, with my favourite eldest daughter coming over – I’m not sure what we’ll be watching – but we’ll be making the most of it – she goes back to uni soon, and I haven’t got her new time-table or schedule yet so I don’t know what days she’ll be free! You know, I’ve mentioned putting up pictures, but what we’re really needing in this house are some wall clocks – especially in here! I have a small desk clock, which if I scrunch my head around and squint past the empty glasses and cups that are usually carelessly placed in front of it (not by me, of course! 😉 ) I can see what the time is, or I can use my wrist watch – except when I forget to put it on in the morning… which is quite often – so yes, a wall clock in here would be a good idea – after all, Julian has the Grandfather clock in the office! Anyway, that’s about it from me again for this evening! Feel free to call in again tomorrow night – find out if we ate our second tomato for dinner, and if my weight is doing anything besides sulking and refusing to go down again (Ah has mah fingers crossed, but I ain’t a-holding mah breath! 😉 ) Until tomorrow night though, do please try to bee good, remember – don’t compromise yourself – you’re all you have! and don’t forget to drive carefully, to keep warm – or cool – depending on the weather, and to look after yourselves – but most importantly, don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂